State "Anti-SLAPP" Statutes Codify First Amendment Doctrine Protecting a Corporation's Right to Petition

On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court found in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations have First Amendment rights in the context of campaign finance. But in some respects that ruling was not as newsworthy as critics suggest. Ironically, individuals and groups that are often at odds with corporate America are largely responsible for a series of powerful statutes that have spread across the country over the last twenty years applying the First Amendment’s right of petition to corporate entities...